The King of Pop

It was sort of exciting television watching the verdict come in on CNN. Yet by now so much of this legal theater has become ritual that the thrill has been much diminished. Watching the Jackson convoy roll in from Neverland, the helicopter camera crews chronicling every lane change and stop sign, forced comparisons with OJ’s white Bronco. That chase has to be one of the most exciting moments ever recorded on television and has spawned, at least here in Southern California, a cottage industry of local stations interrupting regular programming to broadcast live anytime the cops chase down a car thief or drunk.

Yet by now, after O.J., Martha Stewart and Robert Blake, these high-profile trials have all the luster of season five of Survivor. The thrill was in the first season, now they are just more feed for the insatiable maw of my TiVo.

Still, as long as we’re here, what can we learn from all this?

Well, the race issue has changed since the OJ trial. As I blogged earlier, both OJ and MJ have long since divorced themselves from mainstream black culture. Yet in response to the OJ acquittal the scene filling TV screens was jubilant black folks. Even if we believed him guilty, perhaps even especially if we believed him guilty, his getting away with it somehow atoned for this nation’s shameful history of falsely imprisoning or worse so many black men who were innocent.

The scene from Santa Maria however was jubilant Jackson supporters, overwhelmingly white, hugging and kissing each other because a 46-year-old man who proudly admits to sleeping with teenaged boys wasn’t convicted of abusing one of them. (Of course the question to ask these fans is would they allow their own sons to share a bed with MJ and if they answered yes to immediately remove their children to Child Protective Custody.)

By the way Wolf Blitzer on CNN pissed me off when he kept mentioning “unpredictable California juries” as if everyone who lives here is a New Age-y moonbeam unlike those sober Washingtonians he surrounds himself with who are doing such a lovely job running this country.

The King of Pop’s music career has long been finished yet he’s fifty-million dollars in debt. He should do what all has-been celebrities do to make a living, become a paid spokesman. The only problem is the only two organizations he’s perfect for are the Catholic church and NAMBLA.